Last night I met a lady who raises Boerboels and she said that a lot of former owners of Rotties are coming to her researching her breed looking for a large protection dog. She said it was because so many of their Rotties died early from cancer.

I have had three Rotties in my adult life and I couldn't get one to live past 11years old. Both Males I had died from stomach cancer.

Is it because of breeding practice or something like Dalmatians and deafness (gene link)?

Is breeding getting better at getting dogs to live longer and healthier?

Both of my aunts older male Rotties died from one form of cancer or another. The first began with a limp in his right leg and ended up finding out it was bone cancer. The second one she woke up one morning and he looked like he had swallowed a watermelon. They did surgrey to see what it was, he didnt end up making it thru and they found he was riddled with stomach cancer. The first one died at 9, the other at almost 8. They dont live long, and almost every Rottie death will be from cancer. And its really ashame. I'm not really well versed on the subject but almost every line is heavy for it. I dont think its breeding practices, per say because even the most well planned, well researched pedigress and looking back at health on older dogs, you can't perdict which dogs/lines will be cancer free. I would almost go as far as to say I doubt currently there IS a Rottweiler line that is cancer free. Hopefully as we learn new information and new stuides we can try to nip this heart breaking disease in the butt.

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